Nyamakima traders cry for help on blocked cargo

Nairobi business owners are crying foul over delays in clearing goods at the Mombasa port.

Nyamakima-based traders spokesperson Monicah Nduati said this had resulted in far-reaching economic miseries for many business owners.

“We are talking of more than 40,000 traders who had come together and raised the capital to import those goods. We had approached it as a joint venture where as many as 200 people had pooled resources to import a container,” she said.

She said the businesses had secured loans from financial institutions and the delayed clearance means the absence of trade to raise money to service loans.

“This is a classic case of a government using flimsy reasons to impoverish us. “We cannot be speaking of building the economy through enterprise as well as creating earning opportunities through trade when all the government is doing is to frustrate entrepreneurs,” she said.

“The government should get a way of dealing with this issue fast before many families suffer irreparable financial dent.”

President Uhuru Kenyatta met with the traders last month over the issue and promised to seek a quick solution to the problem.

Ms Nduati said despite President’s Chief of Staff and Head of Presidential Delivery Unit Nzioka Waita promising the issue required a week to be resolved, nothing happened.